A USF student group has set out to teach USF students about the ways they can become better leaders both on and off campus.

Leadership House is co-sponsoring “Lead Week” with the Center of Student Involvement. During this three-day event, April 1-3, students will hear from renowned speakers and participate in events to boost their leadership skills.

Leadership House is a student organization located in Theta Hall. Participants in the Leadership House program live in the same residence hall to promote and acquire leadership qualities.

Lead Week is a way for the Leadership House to promote awareness of its mission. A committee of six members designated the activities of the week.

“The goal of Lead Week is to get the campus to realize that leadership and leadership skills are for everyone and that leaders aren’t just the presidents and senators in Student Government,” said Destiny Ramsey, a Lead Week committee member. “Everyone can be a leader no matter if you have a title or not.”

Each of the week’s events will be co-sponsored by another organization on campus. One co-sponsor is The University Lecture Series.

Don “Dipper” DiPaolo, a world-renowned leadership speaker, will open the week with his speech on how to bring out a leader in anyone. Students can attend this event in the Phyllis P. Marshall Center ballroom at 7 p.m., April 1.

“He expresses that leadership is for everyone and his presentation is very interactive, very inspiring and very life-changing,” Ramsey said. “Instead of just a boring lecture, this is something that you actually participate in instead of just listening to, and I’m really excited about this one.”

Leadership House also worked with the Campus Activities Board to bring some Lead Week activities to Movies on The Lawn. Students will be able to watch the film Freedom Writers and participate in diversity-building activities while eating pizza provided by Leadership House.

Lead Week will end April 3 with a celebration in the MLK Plaza. Starting at 11 a.m., USF community members will read excerpts from famous speeches by world leaders. Various organizations will have booths set up for leadership enhancing games. The first 200 students to attend will get a free ice cream sandwich.

Lauren Kaplan, the Leadership House member responsible for setting up the MOTL event, said alumna Jennifer Espinola of the Center for Student Leadership Development created the idea of Lead Week, which will be the first of its kind to take place at USF.

“We’re excited to be the first ones to kick it off and we hope it will be a long tradition here at USF,” Kaplan said. “Everyone is involved with leadership in their life, big or small, and we just want to communicate it to everybody.”